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BBM’s new security policy alarms farm workers

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UMA: Marcos further justifies state tyranny

Farm workers condemned government’s new national security policy (NSP) they said would only worsen the culture of impunity in the country. 

Reacting to the newly-approved Executive Order 37 (EO37) adopting NSP 2023-2028, the Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has further justified state tyranny in his government’s counter-insurgency policy. 

The group pointed that in its section on “public safety, peace, and justice,” the NSP spelled out the directive to “strengthen[…] action against the legal fronts of the CPP-NPA-NDF (Communist Party of the Philippines, New People’s Army, National Democratic Front of the Philippines),” rendering in policy the practice of red-tagging trade unions and peasant associations. 

UMA said that in praising the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict that has led in the red-tagging campaigns, the Marcos government aims to continue its suppression of legitimate organizations as part of its counter-insurgency programs.  

Red-tagging in the Philippines is the malicious blacklisting of legal opposition individuals and organizations as affiliated with the CPP, NPA and NDFP that often leads to their persecution and killing. 

The government has said the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), New People’s Army (NPA), and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) remain its biggest security threat. 

UMA chairperson Ariel Casilao said NSP 2023-2028 is a dangerous mix of illogic and impunity, adding the new five-year policy is a threat to the lives and rights of every Filipino. Casilao also pointed out that the government’s new policy defies the International Labor Organization’s recommendation to end its red-tagging activities. 

“This [NSP 2023-2028) ran counter to its description of the ‘democratic way of life,’ elements of which included, in its own words, ‘participatory governance’ and ‘respect for human rights and freedoms,” Casilao added. 

The peasant leader said it is the police and the military who prevents democracy, particularly when they spy on, abduct, file trumped-up charges, and assassinate members of farmers organizations they have subjected to red-tagging. # (Raymund B. Villanueva) 

Farmers demand justice for NDFP consultant 3 years after assassination

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Agricultural workers commemorated the third death anniversary of murdered National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant Randall Echanis, saying government policies that led to his assassination are still in place.

The Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) led a protest rally at the Department of Justice in Manila on Thursday, August 10, demanding justice for the peasant leader who died of 40 multiple stab wounds.

Echanis was deputy secretary general of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), president of Anakpawis Party, and vice chairperson of the NDFP’s Reciprocal Committee on Social and Economic Reforms when he died.

READ: NDFP peace consultant Randall Echanis murdered

UMA said it condemns the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government for maintaining former President Rodrigo Duterte’s violent counter-insurgency programs that resulted in Echanis’ assassination.

“But this US-endorsed counter-insurgency measure, one that depoliticized national liberation as mere ‘terrorism,’ was not the sole policy to blame. By then, Executive Order 70 (EO70) or the ‘all-of-nation approach’ to end the civil war was already entrenched, and gaining more and more notoriety for targeting peasant leaders,” UMA said in a statement.

Farmers groups and supporters hold a protest rally at the DOJ in Manila on the 3rd anniversary of the killing of peasant leader Randall Echanis. Holding the microphone is Echanis’ son and the poster his widow. (Photo by Nuel M. Bacarra/Kodao)

More farmers fall victims to repression

The group added that three years after Echanis’ death, government’s Memorandum Order 32 (MO32) covering Negros, Samar, and Bicol had also already normalized the massacre of organized farmers and agri-workers such as the Negros 14.

“[A]nd the fake war on drugs had made extra-judicial killings, especially of the urban poor, an everyday occasion and a household term,” UMA said.

“Comrade Randy was not the first civilian to be victimized by these fascist policies, and he was definitely not the last,”UMA acting chairperson Ariel Casilao said.

“Duterte’s terrorist legacy is being perpetrated by Marcos by his implementation of the ‘Terror Law’, EO70, MO32, and even the fake war against illegal drugs,” Casilao added.

The former Anakpawis represented further said the same policies that killed Echanis remain at work in, among others, the ongoing militarization of Tuy, Batangas; the proscription of four Cordillera activists and three more in Southern Tagalog into the terror list; red-tagging as a form of union-busting in Sta. Maria, Isabela; as well as in the aerial bombings of civilian communities in Abra.  

“Worse, such human rights violations kept escalating into enforced disappearances and murders. Bazoo de Jesus and Dexter Capuyan, indigenous people’s rights advocates, had yet to surface 100 days since their abduction. Billy Fausto, an organized sugar worker, was massacred along with his wife Emelda and two children in Himamaylan, Negros Occidental last June,” UMA complained.

The group also pointed out that the number of political prisoners had ballooned to 778, 49 of them arrested in the past 12 months alone.

“The peasant death toll under the present regime now reached 58. Drug-related killings since Marcos, Jr. took power totaled to 336, even while he continued to refuse holding his predecessor accountable for 13,000 or so,” UMA revealed.

The agricultural workers also expressed fears that the proposed allotment of P10 billion for confidential and intelligence funds in the government’s 2024 national budget could only aggravate the implementation of EO70, MO32, and the Terror Law.

“[T]hese statistics could only grow. The impunity with which Ka Randy was killed certainly remained intact, and this was so to keep the peasantry landless and the working class precarious,” UMA said.

READ: Randall Echanis: Funny guy who was serious at the negotiating table

“Marcos and Duterte’s fascism are not without reason. They are protecting the big landlords and the compradors, and especially the interests of the imperialists,” Casilao added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Farmers: No to intel funds, yes to social services

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Farmer groups said the government’s proposed P5.678 trillion 2024 budget must be carefully scrutinized, adding planned intelligence and debt servicing funds should be allocated to social services instead.

The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said that the Office of the President, Office of the Vice President and the Department of National Defense are needlessly allocated P4.5 billion, P500 million and P1.7 billion, respectively.

“These proposed confidential and intelligence funds should be re-channeled to social services instead,” KMP said.

The KMP also said the P700 billion earmarked for debt servicing (12% of the proposed budget) as well as the P282 billion for national defense (4.9%) are more than the P893 billion (15%) for all public services combined.

The Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration’s proposed 2024 infrastructure program is even bigger at P1.4 trillion, the farmers’ group said.

“There should be enough time to study and scrutinize the proposed budget. It is hard to believe this is a pork barrel-free budget. Because this will come from people’s taxes, everyone must be alert or else, this will only be wasted by corruption,” the KMP said in the statement.

KMP chairperson Danilo Ramos also said they will scrutinize the proposed budget for the Department of Agriculture, Department of Agrarian Reform, Department of Environment and Natural Resources to see how they would be spent to respond to the problems of the agriculture sector.

Ramos added that the sector would press for more funds for subsidies for greater local agricultural production.

The Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) also questioned the total of about P10 billion confidential and intelligence fund proposal as “Like footing the bill for being stepped on.”

UMA expressed fears the said items will only be used for used to suppress the labor and peasant movements through surveillance and other human rights violations.

“Why should the people agree to pay for this regime’s fascism and corruption? We are their victims and yet they ask us to pay,” UMA acting chairperson Ariel Casilao said.

UMA pointed out farmers are victims of harassments and vilification campaigns of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, such as the Batangas and Isabela sugar workers.

The group also blamed the massacre of the Fausto family in Negros Occidental for being members of a local farmers’ association.

“That is how the regime will spend the P10 billion – with trumped up stories and charges. Sadly, the effects are not fiction. Blood is spilled by their actions,” Casilao said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

More groups call for justice for the Tiamzons

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More groups condemned the reported deaths of top Communist Party of the Philippines leaders Benito and Wilma Tiamzon and the alleged manner in which they were killed by government soldiers.

Peasant groups Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) and Anakpawis Party said the brutal slay of the couple prove the government’s disinterest in solving the root causes of the armed conflict in the country.

Indigenous peoples’ organizations Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (Katribu), Sandugo – Movement of Moro and Indigenous Peoples for Self-Determination (Sandugo), and BAI Indigenous Women’s Network (Bai) in a joint statement said there is no justification for the manner of their deaths as well as the apparent cover-up that followed.

UMA said if only the government put as much effort into solving peasant landlessness and widespread hunger as they did in the cover-up, they could have easily ended the civil war the Tiamzons led.

 “But they’d rather spend time and resources committing such disturbing war crimes instead.” UMA spokesperson John Milton Lozande said.

Acting UMA chairperson and former Anakpawis Party Representative Ariel Casilao said,“Killing CPP leaders doesn’t make Marcos a strong leader. What it does is reveal how weak he is at addressing the problems that have made common Filipinos willing to take up arms.”

 “The government can end this war with genuine social reforms if it wanted to. Question is, does it want to?” Casilao added.

Casilao said they recognize that the armed revolution waged by the likes of the Tiamzons is aligned with the demands of the toiling masses, foremost of which is “seizing control of land from imperialists, compradors, and the landlords they worked with, and handing it over to the peasantry.”

The indigenous peoples’ groups meanwhile recalled when the Tiamzons took time to visit and consult with the Lakbayan ng mga Pambansang Minorya and Lumad bakwit at the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman shortly after their second release from prison in 2016 to participate in the peace negotiations.

“They listened to us and advocated for the concerns and aspirations of national minorities to the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER). They sincerely sat at the negotiating table with the Duterte administration to work for peace and push for genuine development,” the groups said in their statement.

“For us national minorities, the Tiamzons and the organizations they represent, CPP-NPA-NDF, were never our enemy. It was not them (who) bombed our communities nor imposed destructive projects in our ancestral lands,” they said.

“They did not kill our leaders and chieftains who protect our lands and rights. They did not imprison or torture us for asserting our right to self-determination. The state and its Armed Forces are the ones that bring terror to our lands and lives,” the groups added.

Katribu, Sandugo and BAI said they call for the Tiamzons and their eight companions killed with them.

“They were revolutionaries, not terrorists. They did not deserve to be tortured and then mercilessly assassinated. If the worst criminals deserve humane treatment, all the more to well-meaning people like them pushing for peace, freedom, and development,” they said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Farmers protest sugar mill closure, abrupt loss of livelihood

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Planters bring rotting sugarcane to posh Bonifacio Global City to dramatize plight

Farmers’ groups asked the authorities to take over operations of a Batangas sugar mill they say closed down due to the government non-stop importation policies as well as failure to stop smuggling of agricultural products into the country.

Representatives of more than 12,000 sugar farm workers of the Central Azucarera de Don Pedro, Inc. (CADPI) in Nasugbu, Batangas protested in front of mill operator Roxas Holdings, Inc. (RHI) in Taguig City on Friday, March 17, demanding immediate aid for their abrupt loss of livelihood since December of last year.

Dumping dried up and rotting sugarcane shoots in front of RHI’s headquarters to show the status of their un-harvested and un-milled crop, the protesters also pressed the government to re-open the mill instead of relying on sugar imports.

They were joined by members of the Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA), Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), and the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW).

CADPI, one of the oldest and biggest raw sugar producers in Luzon, filed for permanent closure last December 15 after “experiencing operational and financial challenges affecting the sugar industry in the Batangas area.”

The closure affects 10,980 hectares of sugarcane areas and has so far left 4,584 sugarcane planters bankrupt.

UMA spokesperson and NFSW secretary general John Milton Lozande said CADPI’s abrupt closure ignores its existing milling contracts with small planters as well as its service agreements with several hauling partners.

“Sugar farm workers who cut and load sugarcane from the fields to the milling facilities have been jobless since December. The RHI Agri-Business Development Corporation (RADC) also entered into crop loan and contract growing agreements with various sugar planters who are not yet paid due to the mill closure,” Lozande said.

Dried and rotting sugar cane the farmers brought to a posh corporate headquarters to dramatize their sudden loss of livelihood. (KMP-supplied photo)

Lozande also revealed that the farmers held a dialogue with Department of Agriculture (DA) undersecretary Domingo Panganiban last February 15 who promised to have their crops milled at the Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT).

Lozande said that both the DA and the Batangas provincial government agreed to fund the cost of transporting 60 to 70 truckloads of sugarcane to CAT, but remains unfulfilled until the planters’ crops have gone way past their regular harvesting period.

The affected farm workers and planters are demanding that the promised fund be used for compensation for their losses instead.

Aside from the uncontrolled smuggling of sugar into the country, KMP chairperson Danilo Ramos blamed the situation to the government’s “non-stop importation” policy, with the latest Sugar Order instructing the importation of some 440,000 metric tons of sugar.

“The government should support local sugar farmers and planters instead of relying on sugar imports,” Ramos said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Tinang farmers oppose new validation order

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Agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) of Hacienda Tinang in Concepcion, Tarlac trooped to the main office of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Quezon City on Monday morning to question a new directive labeling them as mere claimants.

Reacting to a new announcement by the Concepcion Municipal Agrarian Reform Office (MARO) last February 17 that the 237 farmers are “potential beneficiaries”, members of the Malayang Kilusang Samahang Magsasaka ng Tinang (MAKISAMA-Tinang) held a rally at the DAR, protesting another validation process being held today February 20 and on February 21 and 27.

The MARO made the announcement 10 days after Sec. Conrado Estrella III assured original ARBs, acknowledged and validated by DAR since 1996, would be installed within 45 days.

The Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) in a statement said the MARO’s decision to subject the ARBs to another round of validation undermines Sec. Estrella’s authority.

“A re-validation process had taken place as recently as June 20 (2022), almost two weeks after the illegal mass arrest of the Tinang 83, underscoring that 178 of the original list of 236 ARBs should be installed on their land, and that the Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) they held remained legitimate,” UMA spokesperson John Milton Lozande said.

“Why was MARO obscuring the fact that Tinang’s ARBs were already CLOA-holders?” Lozande asked.

“Masyado nang matagal ang 27 taong ihinintay ng mga magsasaka ng Tinang. Mahigit 30 benepisaryo na ang namatay at hindi nasilayan ang napipintong tagumpay. Dinagdagan pa ni Sec. Estrella ng 45 araw ang kanilang paghihintay,” Lozande added.

(Twenty-seven years is too long for the Tinang farmers to be kept waiting. More than 30 of the original ARBs have died and have not yet seen their impending victory. Sec. Estrella has added 45 more days to their long wait.)

The farmers accused Concepcion Mayor Noel Villanueva as behind the latest round of delays in their installation to the land, expressing hope that the new validation process is not the local executive’s way of getting back at the ARBs whose complaint against the police who arrested them last July 26 was adjudged “sufficient in form and substance” by the Office of the Ombudsman.

Among the almost 30 police officers implicated was P/Lt. Col. Reynold Macabitas who had been seen receiving instructions from Villanueva on the day of the mass arrest.

The Hacienda Tinang struggle gained prominence when the police arrested more than 100 ARBS and their supporters while undertaking attempting to plant crops on the disputed property.

UMA expressed hope that MARO’s action was not petty retaliation from the landgrabbing mayor for the Office of the Ombudsman’s judgment that the Tinang 83’s complaint against Concepcion police, filed by the Tinang 83 on July 26, was “sufficient in form and substance.”

“Where are they getting the courage to counter DAR commitments and any semblance of logic and concern for the farmers? How close is Villanueva to the powers that be that he can spit at the face of justice?” Lozande asked in Filipino.

Meanwhile, acting UMA chairperson and former Anakpawis Representative Ariel Casilao to investigate the MARO decision seemingly contradicting Sec. Estrella’s promise to the farmers.

“We respectfully urge Sec. Estrella to clarify DAR’s position on the matter, fast-track the installation of Tinang ARBs on their 200-hectare land, and look into why MARO officials have been throwing farmers under the bus in favor of Villanueva,” Casilao said.

“Please don’t let unscrupulous officials break the hearts of our farmers all over again,” he added.

Both Casilao and Lozande said they hope the DAR would understand why MAKISAMA-Tinang would refuse participation in MARO’s re-validation activities.

“It would undo 27 years worth of struggle, and waste all the blood, sweat, and tears poured into the assertion of their rights over land withheld from them by the mayor,” they said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Farm workers oppose more US military facilities in the country

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UMA: Increased US presence means more war, human rights violations, economic plunder

A federation of farm workers expressed fears that the establishment of more United States (US) military facilities in the country would give rise to more war, human rights violations and foreign economic plunder in the Philippines.

Following reports of aerial bombings in Hacienda Intal in Baggao, Cagayan last February 2, the Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) said it is alarmed that US troops would not only encourage “state terrorism”, they may even participate in military operations that inevitably affect farming communities.

“Bukod sa dinadawit tayo ng US sa mga gerang hindi atin at taliwas sa pambansang interes ng Pilipinas, gagamitin din ito ng mga imperyalista para sulsulan ang estado na lalong supilin, atakihin, at dahasin ang sarili nating mga kababayan,” UMA chairperson John Milton Lozande said.

(Aside from dragging us into wars that are not ours and are against Philippine national interest, the imperialists would use these military bases to persuade the government to suppress, attack, and commit violence against our people.)

Both already heavily-militarized, the northern Cagayan and Isabela provinces are among the sites where four new US military facilities would be built following a recent agreement made between US Defense Secretary John Lloyd Austin III and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the former’s recent official visit to the country.

Zambales and Palawan, both facing the West Philippine Sea, are the two other provinces.

Five US Joint Special Operations Task Forces groups are currently operating inside Armed Forces of the Philippine camps as part of Operation Pacific Eagle-Philippines program, which would be increased to nine should the agreement push through.

Austin’s visit coincided with bombing operations conducted by the Tactical Operation Group 2 of the Philippine Air Force while the 501st Infantry Battallion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) conducted ground military operations at Sitio Birao, Barangay Hacienda Intal of Baggao last February 2.

The operations followed a gunfight between the 95th IBPA and communist fighters under the Henry Abraham Command of the New People’s Army.

Both sides reported no casualties in the incident.

Bombo Radyo-Tuguegarao reported that 149 families of 272 civilians were forced to evacuate due to the operations and bombings.

Meanwhile, Cagayan Governor Manuel Mamba expressed his opposition to the establishment of foreign military facilities in his province.

He said in a radio interview that Cagayan Province does not need to be a site for new US military operations in the country.

‘Economic plunder’

Aside from threats posed by more soldiers in farming communities, UMA said increased US military presence also means that the foreign country wants to maintain its dominance on mining and plantation businesses in the Philippines.

Lozande said that through land monopoly, US corporations have long extracted raw materials from the Philippines for their industries, holding back the Philippines’ own industrialization.

“Lands that ought to be devoted to domestic food production…were held hostage by a plantation system equally beholden to corporate interests, churning out high-value crops in demand in the US-dominated world market rather than yielding food staples like rice,” Lozande added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Who’s afraid of the Tinang farmers’ ‘bamboo monument’?

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The agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) of Hacienda Tinang in Concepcion, Tarlac thought they could commemorate the first anniversary of the building of their bamboo hut with a simple and peaceful gathering. The farmers erected it last February 1, 2022 to mark their decision to cultivate a contested farmland they believe is rightfully theirs.

As the members of the Malayang Kilusang Samahan ng Magsasaka ng Tinang (MAKISAMA-Tinang) prepared to gather at their kubol (hut) last Wednesday, however, they were greeted with the news that military personnel put up checkpoints on the paths leading to their hut. “Soldiers in fatigues came and went on their motorcycles in front of our hut, while a police mobile drove by several times, even parking close to us at some point,” MAKISAMA-Tinang said.

The group added that the previous night, military elements called some of their members to a “gathering” to “offer aid.” They refused, fearing that once they succumb to the enticements, they would be forced to disaffiliate from their organization, inadvertently giving up on their claim to the land.

A bamboo monument to resistance

The hut was put up in 2022 as COVID-19 restrictions loosened and as MAKISAMA-Tinang prepared to launch their “bungkalan”, a type of protest action involving collective cultivation by farmers of a contested property to assert their right over it.

Built at the edge of a path leading to a 200-hectare sugarcane field called Hacienda Tinang in Concepcion town, the hut is the group’s meeting and gathering place, especially when they have organizational and cultivation activities.

It was in the hut that more than 100 agrarian reform beneficiaries, kin and supporters were violently arrested by the Philippine National Police (PNP) last June on orders of then Representative, now Concepcion town mayor Noel Villanueva.

MAKISAMA-Tinang’s hut being rebuilt after a strong typhoon destroyed it last September. (MAKISAMA-Tinang photo)

Nine-three of those arrested were detained under the scorching heat of the sun or crammed inside stifling hot jail cells at the Concepcion PNP station for several days, causing the hospitalization of some of those arrested. Through the effort of local and Metro Manila-based human rights lawyers and other supporters who raised bail funds, those arrested were temporarily released after four days.

Last September, a strong storm also completely demolished the hut, which was promptly rebuilt by the farmers. Less than a month later, the rebuilt hut was ransacked by unknown men in the dead of night. 

MAKISAMA-Tinang chairman Felino Cunanan, Jr. being arrested in June 2022. (MAKISAMA-Tinang photo)

Last November 6, MAKISAMA-Tinang members suffered their biggest blow of all. Their courageous chairperson, Felino Cunanan, Jr., died of abdominal aortic aneurysm after another threatening visit by the military the previous night.

All these threats and violations, despite the fact that the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has repeatedly affirmed that Hacienda Tinang shall be distributed to legitimate 236 agrarian reform beneficiaries, including MAKISAMA-Tinang members.

Military preventing farmers’ installation

 “Almost three decades have passed since DAR ruled in favor of these farmers, yet instead of installing them on their land, the government has only militarized their community,” Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) spokesperson Milton John Lozande lamented.

“Soldiers have already put up unwarranted checkpoints around the ARBs’ land. In possible violation of International Humanitarian Law, state forces have been occupying civilian structures in the vicinity to terrorize them. Now they also have the gall to crash this simple celebration?” he continued,

Lozande’s group had been urging the DAR to expedite the farmers’ installation at Hacienda Tinang, despite ever-worsening harassments by the military and Mayor Noel Villanueva.

In the just concluded high-level International Labor Organization (ILO) visit to the Philippines, the mass arrest of the farmers had been included in the complaints submitted. The state assault on and vilification of MAKISAMA-Tinang, many of whose members were agricultural workers as well, constituted a violation of their internationally recognized freedom of association, UMA said

“The farmers of Tinang have suffered long enough. Decades of landlessness are a bad enough injury, and the Marcos regime dare add the insult of violating their right to organize?” Lozande asked.

MAKISAMA-Tinang members and their hut. (MAKISAMA-Tinang photo)

Despite the ongoing harassments, MAKISAMA-Tinang farmers said they are not giving up their fight and have added the militarization of their community as among those they resist against.

They may have failed again to peacefully gather at their hut last Wednesday because of the soldiers’ harassments, but their humble one-year old bamboo structure has once more proven its value as a symbol of their resistance against decades-old injustices. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Tinang 83 files charges vs. ‘cruel and inhumane’ police

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Tinang 83 farmers and supporters filed six charges against the Concepcion (Tarlac) Philippine National Police (PNP) at the Office of the Ombudsman on Tuesday, July 26, in connection with their violent mass arrest last June 9.

The farmers and their supporters filed Violation of Rights of Persons Arrested, Detained, and Under Custodial Investigation; Perjury; Unlawful Arrest; Arbitrary Detention; Physical and Mental/Psychological Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane, Degrading Treatment or Punishment; Grave and Serious Misconduct and Conduct Prejudicial to the Best Interest of the Service; and Grave Abuse of Authority and Oppression against the police.

At least 30 personnel of the Concepcion PNP, led by Lt. Col. Reynold Macabitas, were named respondents.

The complainants asked the Ombudsman to remove the policemen from service and issue a preventive suspension against them while the investigation is ongoing.

The charges the farmers filed is in response to what they say was very cruel treatment they suffered on their arrest, four-day imprisonment in crowded and humid jail cells and at the police head-quarter’s parking lot, and the seven of charges filed against them in quick succession by the police in collaboration with the Tarlac Provincial Prosecutors’ Office.

On July 7, several members of the Tinang 83 filed administrative complaints against Tarlac Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Mila Mae Montefalco before the Department of Justice for grave and serious misconduct, gross ignorance of the law and procedure, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.

Tinang 83 members and lawyers trooped to the Office of the Ombudsman to file six complaints against the Concepcion PNP. (UMA photo)

 ‘Cruel’

The police charged the farmers and land rights advocates a total of seven criminal complaints after the arrests, including malicious mischief, illegal assembly, obstruction of justice, disobedience to authority, usurpation of real rights in property, human trafficking and child exploitation charges.

They were conducting a land cultivation activity when mass arrested by the police.

The Department of Agrarian Reform later released a list that named the farmers as legitimate beneficiaries of the property known as Hacienda Tinang.

The Capas Municipal Trial Court has dismissed the illegal assembly and malicious mischief charges against the farmers.

The Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura said the counter charges against the police are “just, urgent, and true—the opposite of those filed by the police against the Tinang 83 upon being prodded by Mayor and land-grabber Noel Villanueva.”

Villanueva, then congressman and Concepcion mayor-elect, was present during the incident and was seen to have ordered the police to arrest the farmers and their supporters.

An Office of the Ombudsman personnel receives copies of the Tinang 83 complaints against the police. (UMA photo)

‘Well-deserved’

UMA chairperson John Milton ‘Ka Butch’ Lozande said in the statement that holding “Villanueva and his lackeys” accountable is timely and deserved.

Lozande said that government officials like Villanueva treat the police and the military like their private army, bending the law to serve their own profiteering interests.”

 “This is an important wake-up call to bureaucrats and the people at large, alerting them to that fact that CARP (comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program)has repeatedly failed farmers, and its failure has benefitted no one but land-grabbers,” Lozande said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Land rights champions face more charges from Tarlac prosecutors

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Government prosecutors are not letting up on Hacienda Tinang farmers and their supporters, charging them with another criminal complaint in Tarlac City on Wednesday.

While appearing at a preliminary investigation for human trafficking charges connected with their violent dispersal and arrest by the Concepcion, Tarlac police last June 9, government prosecutors bared that nine of the defendants are also facing child exploitation charges.

“In today’s preliminary investigation in Tarlac, we received a copy of the records of the new trumped up charge of child exploitation against the artists, journalist and peasant rights advocates who were illegally arrested, along with the agrarian reform beneficiaries of Hacienda Tinang during the conduct of their peaceful ceremonial bungkalan of the land that rightfully belongs to them,” their lawyer Kathy Panguban said.

The latest complaint apparently stems from reports that several minors were present during the arrest and were among those hauled to the Concepcion municipal police station on the day of the incident.

The minors, reportedly children of the supporters present that day, were released to relatives and guardians within hours of the mass arrest.

Nine of the 83 were charged with the latest criminal complaint.

The new charge brings to seven the total number of complaints filed against them by the Tarlac Provincial Prosecutor’s Office, including alleged malicious mischief, illegal assembly, obstruction of justice, disobedience to authority, usurpation of real rights in property and human trafficking.

The Capas (Tarlac) Municipal Trial Court has already dismissed the malicious mischief and illegal assembly charges against all of the 83 farmers and supporters arrested and jailed for four days.

The Department of Agrarian Reform has also finally released its list of legitimate Hacienda Tinang land beneficiaries, including all members of the members of Malayang Kilusan ng Samahang Magsasaka ng Tinang (Makisama-Tinang) arrested on June 9.

“It pains to see how the justice system is being weaponized against what is right and just for the farmers who had long been deprived of the enjoyment of their property. Even those who support their legitimate calls are now being dragged to answer such fabricated criminal charges,” Panguban said.

Fiscal asked to inhibit

The Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) said in a separate statement that Wednesday’s preliminary investigation did not proceed pending the resolution of an earlier motion that the entire Tarlac Provincial Prosecutor’s Office inhibit itself from conducting the human trafficking compliant it filed against six of the defendants.

A similar motion was filed last July 8 by all of the 83 defendants pertaining to the conduct of the preliminary investigation into the charges of disobedience to authority, obstruction of justice, and usurpation of real rights in property.

The defendants also asked the courts for a transfer of venue of the investigations, expressing concern about the perceived influence Concepcion mayor Noel Villanueva over the proceedings.

Villanueva, then District Representative, was present during the arrest of the defendants and was recorded to have ordered the police to round up the farmers and their supporters who were having lunch at the time.

It was while waiting for the resolution of their motion to inhibit last Wednesday did Prosecutor Mila Mae Montefalco-Ikeshita bared the “never-before-seen official complaint” for the charge of child exploitation, UMA said in its statement.

The complaint had been filed by Concepcion police against nine peasant advocates, including the six facing accusations of human trafficking.

Five of those charged who agreed to be identified in this report are Donna Miranda, Angelo Suarez, Pia Montalban, Joyce Godoy, and Allan Bonifacio.

Farmers to file complaints themselves

UMA spokesperson John Milton Lozande that the string of charges against the farmers and their supporters is “plain and vulgar judicial harassment.”

“If anyone exploited any children in the case of the Tinang 83, it was the Concepcion police. It was they, after all, who violently accosted farmers and supporters in an illegal mass arrest in Tinang last June 9, stirring fear among minors present, then redtagged them to justify the round-up,” Lozande said.

Lozande also revealed that members of the Tinang 83 will themselves file administrative cases against the Concepcion police, particularly its officer-in-charge Lt. Col. Reynold Macabitas, at the Office of the Ombudsman in Quezon City on Monday, July 25.

Lozande’s group said their complaint will be the first in a series that the police may expect from them. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)